Raise your hand if you want the next morning you wake up and/or walk into the office to be incredible. I see a lot of hands! I believe in practicing mindfulness and getting physically as well as mentally active each and every day. I have found there are five things to do to make your next day brilliant.

The attitude with which you wake up, will color your entire day. The attitude with which you fall asleep plays a role as well. Whether you want a better day at work, with your family, on vacation or in any aspect of your life, here are some actions I take.

Five Things To Do To Make Your Next Day Brilliant

What is your bedtime ritual? Are you watching news? Dramas? Are you on social media getting worked up by the posts you’re reading? Are you reading a book you love, sipping a glass of water or tea and sitting in a dimly lit room with relaxing music playing? Which ritual do you think will help you better fall asleep? Food for thought.

Take a walk. When you walk at night, it’s calm, the glare of the sun has gone away and the sounds of nighttime are typically more relaxing. Walking in the moonlight will help you destress and might help you sleep better.

Unplug. If you’re looking at your phone or watching television or listening to talk shows on the radio, you’re not able to relax. If you’re reading in bed, read a good old-fashioned paperback book. The light from our devices interrupts our brain waves and makes us more tired. Also, if you’re checking email before bedtime, you’re bound to get an email that stresses you out and will make you think about what you will have to say or do to address that message in the morning. If you’ve read a message that is causing you stress, you should simply get up and address it so it won’t be poking at you all night.

Is your bedroom comfortable? Is it dark enough? Is your bed comfortable? Does your pillow contribute to your sleep or make it harder to get to sleep. Is your room cool enough? A warm room makes it harder to get to sleep than a cool one. Do you need white noise to help you sleep better? Get a sound machine or turn on a fan.

Plan your day before you leave the office. Write a to-do list. Get your priorities in order and write them down. That way you will take the stress of “what am I doing tomorrow” out of your thoughts and getting it down on paper. You’re also making it easier to jump back into your tasks when you walk in the following morning.

Write in a journal. Before you fall asleep, write down the days successes and what you’re grateful for. Read that before you get out of bed the following morning and you’re bound to have a great day!

Employee or entrepreneur, making use of your time in the most efficient and effective manner just makes sense. If you’re looking for time-saving success tips for 2018, look first to the way in which you perform your tasks. If you’re looking for a way to get more productive (so you have more time for your leisure activties and family) or if you want to be more organized in the new year, here are my top success tips:

Time-Saving Success Tips For 2018

Clean out your email inbox. Many people I’ve spoken with will take the drastic measure to simply empty the inbox and start from scratch. They feel that if the messages had gone unread for weeks or months, then they likely can be discarded. They also feel that if something is important, the individual will reach back out to them. Whether you take such a drastic measure to get your inbox back to zero is a highly personal choice. What I like to do is choose a “set point” for my emails. For example I will say “as of January 1, 2018” my inbox is at zero and I will work to keep it at zero at the end of each day. Set aside a chunk of time, daily and address all of the emails. If you “touch it” you need to act upon it. If it helps, move all of the previously unread and unacted upon messages into a folder and chip away at them during the new year.

What can you delegate? How many items are on your to-do list that you could delegate to someone else? If you’re not certain whether it’s “worth it,” calculate your hourly rate and determine how long it takes you to do a specific task that doesn’t require your input and then see if you would be better off delegating. Choose tasks that may not be as complicated as they appeared at first blush — delegate it. What tasks need to be done, but aren’t making you any money? Delegate those.

Just say “no…” and “yes.” There is power in “yes and no” you just know how to wield the power to your best interest. When you’re asked to take on a new task or project or to become a volunteer, ask yourself if this will enhance your life or your career — if it will then give an enthusiastic “yes,” if it won’t or if it will cause you undue stress then say, “thanks but no thanks.” If you’re uncertain as to what your answer should be, don’t be pressured into making a snap decision, simply say, “I might be interested, let me give it some thought.” Then go back to your office and weigh the pros and cons.

Here’s wishing you a happy, prosperous and more efficient and effective 2018! Take charge of your success; as an employee you need to be a valuable part of the team without taking on so much that you burn out.

You ever heard this quote from Albert Einstein? “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?” Clear your desk be more productive seems to belie that quote, but it had us wondering, “Do you have a cluttered mnd?” Are you leaving thoughts on the “table” because they are running around, unfettered, through your brain?

How many thoughts, half-formulated ideas, plans and tasks do you have cluttering up your brain? With these thoughts fluttering around, how is that impacting your ability to formulate new plans and thoughts? Do new thoughts go unexplored because you’re spending too much time and brain power and mental energy on those that you haven’t taken the time to corral?

How can you clear the clutter — in your mind and on your desk — to be more productive?

Clear Your Desk Be More Productive

Write your tasks and thoughts down. Whether you use paper or electronic means, when you remove the clutter you are clearing your mind and desk to allow new thoughts and ideas in.

An organized workspace (and mind) helps you get items done. The time you save looking for something is time you can be productive.

Take a physical break to clear the clutter. Taking a short walk or going up and down a few flights of stairs is like hitting the refresh button on your internal computer.

Write your to do list for the following day before you leave the office at the end of a work day. When you do this you give yourself a jump start on the following day and you also help prevent the middle of the night freak outs about something you’d forgotten to do or write down.

Clear your mind of mental clutter and you can be more productive. Do you have a clear cut plan for clearing your mental and physical clutter? Has it helped you get more done?

Conscious business ownership is a buzzword in entrepreneurial circles. What does it mean? It means that the business takes up causes and that the way they operate the business, treat their employees and customers and the environment support their mission and vision. Is your business promoting your values? Maybe it isn’t even something you’ve ever thought about. Chances are you haven’t. I didn’t, until recently. Once I did take time to think about my mission and vision for my business, though, I did realize I run my business the way I run my life — I follow specific missions in my life and they carry over to my business dealings.

Is Your Business Promoting Your Values?

Whether you’re a solopreneur or if you’re looking for a business partner, you need to know your mission and visions and to make certain they mesh or you will be butting heads. You may or may not pronounce to your clients and your employees that you are running a conscious business, or you may just be living your mission and vision without the pronouncement.

I’ll bet you are living your mission and your vision and that it is carrying over into your business interactions, but if you’re not clear about the concept, here are values to consider:

Be authentic. Be true to yourself every day in every business and personal relationships

Be ethical. Just as you wouldn’t work with someone whose ethics you questioned, you don’t want your potential business partner to question your ethics.

Be trustworthy. If you’re trustworthy, you will more quickly build trust with prospective clients. It’s been said that new clients want to work with a business owner they “know, like and trust” and you want to be the person they have those feelings for.

If you work with a team, do they understand your core values? If not, why not? Have you articulated the mission and values to them? More importantly, have you shared with them HOW they can carry those values into their interactions with clients on a daily basis.

Filter Short Term And Long Term Tasks as a way to get more done and be more productive in your business.

In order to be your most productive you need to know when you are most productive. Some people are “morning people” while others are “night owls.” Know yourself and know when you are operating at peak mental capacity and efficiency and focus on your hardest or most challenging work then.

What makes you feel productive? Is it crossing a lot of items off a to-do list? Is it chipping away at a major task, bit by bit, even if you can’t cross it completely off a to-do list?

Here are some ways to amp up your productivity by knowing when to focus on long term and short term tasks. Look at your day and decide what is the priority item. Is it calling clients? Is it writing a chapter in your book? Is it getting out of the office for networking events?

Are the tasks you’re considering long term or short term? Are they items you will do once and never have to think about again? Are the tasks those that recur throughout the month or week or year? Make note of that so you can better schedule your time to address these tasks.

Take some time and write down a list of your long term tasks, list your short term tasks and make note of which of these tasks on both lists are one and done or are recurring.

Look at both of your lists and the fact of whether the items are recurring or one and done. If it’s a long term, indepth project it should make it to your to-do list and you should put a time limit for working on it to chip away at it daily. Your short term, one and done tasks are those that you can quickly do and check off — it’s a great feeling to get through those items.

I suggest writing all of these tasks down so you can have a bird’s eye view of what needs to get done and in what time frame. Then you can set a schedule to accomplish those items.

Is there something, or more than one thing you can to do help assure you have a successful day? I think that your morning routineslead to success throughout the day. For those of you who aren’t “morning people” and your “morning” starts in the afternoon, consider these afternoon routines that can lead to success.

Get up early. If you normally get up at 6 am (or noon) get up an hour earlier. Set that time aside to work on your own personal projects or to get a work out in. Look at that hour as a gift you’re giving yourself.

Check the news in your industry. Read through trade journals, listen to podcasts, catch up on the ezines you subscribe to but rarely read. Staying on top of the trends in your niche will keep you competitive.

Strategize. Pull out your calendar — whether paper or virtual — and make notes of the calls you have to take or return, what one project you want to finish today, what three things you can do to move your business ever forward and help you attain higher success.

Organize. Use time blocking techniques to help you get more done. Set aside X number of hours (or minutes) to chip away at a big project. Set aside a couple of hours to tackle regular daily work chores. Writing down what you need to accomplish will hold you to task.

Check your work email after you’ve planned your day and have you’ve strategized. Don’t use the additional hour you’re giving yourself to plunge into email or social media. That hour should be electronic-free (unless you’re using your FitBit to track your steps during your morning workout!)

What routines do you have that help you get and keep focused and keep you moving toward success?